The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) met with various troupe leaders recently to review issues that arose during last year’s parades and plan the children and grand parades for Carnival 2011.
According to the SCDF, the troupe leaders had no significant issues to report from last year’s festivities. The discussion for 2011 centered on the parade structure for Carnival 2011, which will have the Children and Grand Carnival parades combined on both parade days due to the shortened Carnival schedule.
Carnival 2011 will be shorter than usual because of how the Easter season falls in April. More information on this will be provided today (Monday) when the SCDF hosts a press conference to release the official schedule for Carnival 2011.
President of the SCDF Stuart Johnson also made a special appeal to the private sector to support Carnival in every aspect, including the troupes. "When we promote Carnival one of the main aspects we use for promotion is our parades. By ‘we’ I mean everyone uses scenes from the parades to promote their event or product," Johnson said.
"We urge the private sector to contribute to our troupe leaders. The parades are the center piece of Carnival. This is not devaluing any other part, what what is Carnival without our colorful and vibrant parades? So we are looking forward to seeing the business sector stepping up for the troupe leaders," he added.
Caption: SCDF President Stuart John (center), Treasurer Erno Labega (far right) and board member Edwaldo Radjouki (left) with Carnival troupe leaders after their recent meeting.